Growing in Hawaii

Q: I’m not able to grow in an in-closed environment and must grow outdoors in a residential area in Hawaii. Everything goes after my plants. What is an effective spray for my plants to eliminate and or repel most or all insects that I can use daily and still have safe smoke? I used to use dish soap but the ingredients have changed and the soap burns the plant now at any effective level like one drop of soap per gallon of water.

A: Aloha friend and fellow grower! You may not want to spray every day since you are in such a humid environment already, unless you have a system for keeping the morning dew off your plants or after rains when the buds are starting to harden, you don’t want bud rot or other fungus problems. You never want beads of water sitting on your plant can act as a magnifying glass burning holes in the leaf under direct sunlight. A leaf blower is real handy for getting all the water off easily and quickly each morning or after rains.

I have bugs all over the place, in my soil and on my plants. Its a actually a good sign of biodiversity in an ecosystem, true bio organics at work. Just don’t allow one bug to proliferate and take over, when a pest or any thing over populates it brings disease to the plant and soil. You just want to keep pest population balanced through spraying or introducing a predator to the ecosystem that will attack them naturally and restores balance. Lady bugs and predatory nematodes are the two most reliable in natural living pest management.

As far as treating your plants with a “spray”, you can spray the plants as many as every three days to as to as little as once every two weeks depending on how bad your issue is and how long it takes to get things back into balance. Best times to spray is two hours before sunrise, or dusk, right when the sun hits the horizon as its setting. This allows time for the plant to dry off to avoid photo burn. The products of spray i recommend and i use, is ORGANICIDE (fish oil) and Neem oil. Use one ounce of Organicide and 1/2 tea spoon of the Neem oil you have per gallon of water. P.H. the water to 6.0 first and shake the mix tell its totally solutionized…. this takes minutes of vigorous shaking…. but its the only way it will ensure you will get the results you want. Warm water (85F*) is important too or the oils will solidify in cold water and not be affective. Keep shaking or mixing the solution throughout the spraying process to ensure an even and consistent spray. Drench the plant as thoroughly as possible, focusing on the undersides of the leaves is most important, then the main stalk, and branches getting the entirety of the plant. You may want to spray the area around your plants too, the soil and any other surface area that can help create a barrier of protection. Spray with just water in between treatments and the last two weeks before harvest to help ensure you have rinsed off any residues. The sun or high intensity light does cause oils to off-gas/volatilize in 7- 14 days which is why you have to always re-apply oils. So if you don’t rinse them off with water the oils should naturally leave the plant by then end of harvesting process. Thanks for the question.